With quiet precision and ferocious candor, Bakken chronicles a young couple’s torturous attempts to conceive a child, a man’s pilgrimage to Greece to collect the body of his dead sister and several characters’ attempts to ground themselves after various losses. The late Frederick Busch, author of “The Children in the Woods: New and Selected Stories,” said “Bakken’s storytelling turns the clumsiness of human need into remarkable grace.” Most of the collection’s stories take place in suburban neighborhoods on Long Island, N.Y., and often narrate love and the concern of characters for their troubled family members.

Bakken holds degrees from Colgate University and the University of Houston, and currently teaches at Allegheny College in Meadville, Pa. For more information about this event, contact Jeff Maehre at (301) 687-4734.